Hey ladies, wanted to come make a big announcement, and now I'm wondering, who will see it.... this thread has gotten so quiet. Well, no matter. Just found out I'm pregnant again! I'm not ready to post this on Facebook, but wanted to tell you guys... I'm due in July, within days of Orion's due date, which is kinda weird, but... whatcha gonna do? I'm a big old silly mix of happy and scared and well, mixed up. Jerome is not as freaked as I was afrain he would be, but he's pretty concerned about our financial situation.... I'm strongly considering going unnassisted this time around, and my guess is that it's a girl.

Love to all

How exciting, Anna!! Congratulations!!

May this little one be strong and healthy and may you enjoy a wonderful, peaceful pregnancy (as much as you can with your two!)! Keep us posted!

Yay! Congrats, Anna!
I am so happy for you guys. Here's sending hope and prayers for a safe, joyful pregnancy. I found the emotional mess quieted down after I had passed the first trimester (well, you know, I still had the pregnancy hormones emotions, but not the extra anxiety ones).

By the way, has anyone heard details about Meg's baby? Must go hunt through the Sept DDC!

Miss all you guys -- I try to stay off Facebook more than once a week, since I waste too much time on Flikr to pick up another internet obsession. But if anyone wants to look me up, I'm Jill Chapman in Melfort, Saskatchewan.

Congrats, Anna!! How exciting. And an unassisted birth... so exciting too! If I were to ever have a fourth (won't happen) I would seriously consider unassisted, especially after my last birth which was 3 hours and almost in the car on the way to the midwife's house.

I'm really curious about Meg too! I stalked the DDCs and didn't see anything. I hope all is well!

Evelyn just had her first birthday. I can't believe how quickly time flies. Anna and Thor are both at the Waldorf school, Thor's doing great but Anna is seriously have some bad seperation anxiety. Very bad... I really dont' know what to do about it. She is very clingy and doesn't want me to go anywhere. Strange.

I'm really curious about Meg too! I stalked the DDCs and didn't see anything. I hope all is well!

HIIIII!!!

I totally dogged out of the Sept 09 ddc.... just never got a good jive going with that group. I'm totally active on thebabywearer if you ever want to find me- same user name. I don't really do facebook, though I did sign up once upon a time to check it out.

But what you really want to know about is our darling Pip (as Carl nicknamed her)- Vivian Rae born at home on Sept 10th, 10:30 or so in the am.

My water broke while Greg and I moved into our *new* bathrooms that the plumbers had hooked up that very day. I've never had my water break before- it's amazing!! But no contractions or anything so we went to bed in the guest room. In the am I was having some, and Greg got antsy and got the midwife and his mom over here.

So at 7 am everyone is watching me and I am feeling fine. Joy (the mw) leaves for her 8 am appt and my mil and Ceci sit down to do clay. I'm having contractions, but they are mild and I'm doing laundry and just kinda hanging out. Eating breakfast and drinking coffee, reading the paper, you know. Then my mil (who I wanted there, who is great, retired dr, very holistic, but had her kids 40 years ago...) says 'well, if your water is broken, you'd better do something to get that baby out!!' Like what- jump off a dresser?!! So by 9 I am annoyed with all these people here. Mom takes Carl to Fleet Farm and I sent mil and Cecilia next door to the credit union.

At 9:30 as I'm ushering them out the door I have a yowza contraction, and I holler at them to get Greg. He's up in the next contraction or two and all of a sudden I am bending over the chair hollering. omg, they were intense!! He (and this is my favorite part) lifts up my skirt and declares 'I believe you are fully dialated!!' So we run upstairs to the tub (it's dawning on me that these contractions are killer b/c I'm used to experiencing this part in the water) and I hop in. Of course we don't have enough hot water and it sucks and I'm in transition and now I really want mil and my mom and those stupid ladies are out touring the country.

Greg calls the midwife and calmly tells her 'it's time.' Then she hears me in the background and realizes she is going to miss the birth! 'Cause I am totally in transition and as soon as greg hangs up I am holding his hand and whimpering "I've got to push!!" Ugh that feeling never gets less intense. So I reach up, feel the head and start workin' her down. A few more nice pushes and her head was out... Joy came pounding up the stairs and we delivered her body.

She has black hair, brown eyes and was 7.13 lbs. I didn't tear, she took to the breast right away. It was awesome!!! She was born so fast, I couldn't believe it. It was kind of traumatic to go from 0 to 60 in an hour.

Viv is easy, only a few weeks of freak-out-time (you know- all that crying) and now she's back to being pretty easy. Sleeps good. She's crying more soon.

Congratulations, Meg!! What an awesome birth! My 3rd birth went very quickly in the end, too (17 minutes from 6cm to holding baby, I think it was). I so know that 0-60 feeling! I had told my midwife to leave not long before and I was *so* glad she didn't.

Babies, babies... So wonderful and exciting!

Who else is currently pg now? I can't begin to keep track! Ok, I know Anna is.

That is an awesome birth story. Hilarious that you had just sent everyone away and had to practically deliver yourself. You are such a bush woman.

Since my second was super fast, and Dave is SO not into delivering the baby himself, I've been told by my doc that at the first contraction I need to drop everything and come to the hospital. Hopefully this time I'll get a nurse that can actually tell that I'm fully dialated instead of being, like, "Hmm, I can't really tell what's happening, there seems to be something in the way . . . " (um, yeah, like, a BABY!).

AugsM -- I'm the other immanently pregnant one.

Meg -- I know what you mean about the DDC's. A whole bunch of the ladies on mine were all dissing the Sears', and going on about how the Baby Book is okay as long as you don't take it too seriously, because no one can actually DO all that stuff.

Meg -- I know what you mean about the DDC's. A whole bunch of the ladies on mine were all dissing the Sears', and going on about how the Baby Book is okay as long as you don't take it too seriously, because no one can actually DO all that stuff.

I totally know what you mean... I lost interest when everyone started talking about how they might try to go natural- but planned on inducing anyway. Not that interventions don't have their place but sheesh. the MDC community has really changed.

sleepy, queazy, withdrawn, yet peaceful Mama saying hello. thanks for all the happiness, regarding my announcement of pregnancy... i especially loved the line of dancing bananas, thanks Heather. That totally used to be my thing... the dancing bananas... when I took the time to use the smiles...
jilly ~ glad to hear you are doing well, when are you due? i've totally lost track. Tried to find you on FB but there are a dang lot of Jill's... are you listed as (what was it?? Saskatoon? SK?) I never found a Melfort listing.. speaking of Facebook, i haven't announced the pregancy there yet and it's driving me crazy, as all I really have to talk about is pregnancy related things... I am struggling to put up status posts... that don't expose my condition...

Hummm. more to say, but i gotta go eat... NOW!

Hugs

Anna Banana ~5 year old daughter ~3 year old son one angel baby and expecting July 2010

Anna, its Jill Chapman in Melfort, SK. If you can't find me, PM me your name and I'll find you. My appologies on having a common name, which is ironically also unpronouncible in any language but English (seriously, almost every other language can either not make the proper "I" sound or has no equivalent of the "L" sound. Very silly).

My DD is Nov 25.

We have exciting but not yet certain or announced to anyone news, too. We are most likely moving to Montreal next year! Dave want to go back to school to do his PhD, and we want to be somewhere urban again. I'm a little nervous because it looks like I will have to go back to work full time to make it happen without a ton of debt, and the new babe would only be 10 mos when the school year starts in Sept. Aaron would be close to 4 and could go to preschool, and Andrew would be in grade 1, so it would not be so bad for them. I feel a little guilty about not giving my third child the same mom time as the other two had, you know? But we'll see what we can work out. I might be able to work part time or tutor or something and work it around Dave's courses. He's mostly just going to be catching up on Latin the first year, anyway.

Anna, I like how you exposed your pregnancy on facebook in a comment to me. Very, very sly.

We are floating along here. Just got over H1N1 (all except for E who never got it), and E is fighting with some odd testicular infection that is residual from having had an undescended testicle brought down surgically in July. We are going to a 2nd urologist tomorrow and hoping to get some resolution with that soon.

T has become an amazing, interesting kid who, when he is not whining, is fun and hilarious, articulate, quirky, and wonderful. And a great big brother.

I have not been around here much lately because I feel like I have drifted away from the "mothering" ideal - I wrote a whole blog post about it if anyone wants to read it... you can find it at http://onlywhoiam.wordpress.com/2009...arenting-card/. Oh and the rest of my blog, too. I've recommitted to blogging lately because the Down syndrome blogging community is huge, but really mainstream. I think they need a touch of balance.

I'm even letting my subscription to mothering magazine lapse. When I get it, I feel like a pariah. I am not the people they are writing to. I no longer cloth diaper, I have to feed my baby formula in bottles, and my baby LOVES to nap in his stroller. These things work for me and our family, but reading over and over about how everything has turned out for me in birth and parenting is not right, and there certainly was something I could have done to make it different, just makes me feel judged and weary. I need to move forward. I read Hip Mama now instead.

Oh Jen! I just read your blog post that you linked to and I want to give you a big giant hug. While I am sure there are people who would be all judgey jerkheads about those things, I hope you know that none of us September mamas feel that way. Yes, I am speaking for all of us I think it is awesome that you found a great way for E to nap. I feel guilty all the time that my baby girl can't take a decent nap, unless I sleep right along with her, which doesn't happen more than once a week or so. If she would take a good nap in a stroller, you can bet your last red cent that I'd let her nap there!! And, cloth diapers. Who is going to fault you for not using them if trim disposables are what E needs?! The nursing thing is the thing I want to give you the biggest hug about. I know how hard it was for you with T, and you worked so so hard to nurse him for so long. I imagine I probably would have given up a heck of a lot sooner. Sometimes things just don't work out. You gave it your best shot woman. You are an awesome, kick ass, mama. I hope you know that!

She is healthy and so far fairly calm and relaxed. She complains if she needs something, but she sleeps really deeply. I've actually had to wake her up to feed her. But she's starting to wake up every two or three hours to nurse, and my milk supply seems to have evened out nicely now, so we're doing well. Dh is really happy to have a girl, but he is already a little extra protective of her, which is kind of cute.

Labour was silly. I was having contractions on and off for a week, with a few visits to the hospital for contrax less than 5 min. apart. But every time the hooked me up to the #%*& stress test machine they would die down. Finally Sunday night they were really strong and 3 min apart, so I sent the boys off to our friends' house AGAIN and went to the hospital. I got there at 6:30. By the time they decided to admit me I was 5cm, then by the time I walked to my room (down the hall) and got changed I was in transition, and by the time I got back to the delivery room and my doctor got there, I was almost fully dialated. So I got to the hospital at 6:30 and Emma came at 8:10! It was funny because we got lots of initial skin to skin time because there was only 15 min. left in the Grey Cup (the Canadian version of the SUper bowl) and the Saskatchewan team was playing, so everyone ran off to watch the end of the game before they did all the weighing/measuring/ etc.

We are all doing fine, but Aaron is driving me crazy. He loves to destroy things and make messes whenever my back is turned, he refuses to use the toilet or let us change him, he won't wear a coat, even though its -20 . . . you can imagine how fun all that is with a newborn.

Jen -- I haven't had a chance to read your blog post yet, but I think often our crunchy ideals have to be tempered by the realities of our situations. Its great to be all super crunchy when you have enough money to buy everything wood or glass or great thrift markets around or a really handy spouse, and a good support system or family locally to support you and a ton of other things like that. But sometimes I think when our ideals hit our reality, we have to do what keeps us all sane, even if it is not what we would like to do in an ideal world. I know I've realized I have to let some of my ideals go so I can be less harried and frustrated. It doesn't matter wether my kids are carried in a sling and breastfed if I then proceed to scream at them all the time and get so burnt out that I can't even attend to their needs.

Hope Aaron settles down soon. The first few weeks can be tough with the transition!

Jen, I agree with everyone else. None of us is the "perfect" AP mama. We each have our own issues to deal with, and part of being a responsive parent is doing what our children - and our families - need, regardless of what any one methodology might dictate.

Hi everyone! It has been so long but life has just been busy for us. I wanted to let you know that I am still alive.

It is hard to believe that we have been living in Wyoming for 3 years now. It just seems like yesterday we were having our get-together at Chrissy's house in Greensboro. I can't believe our babies are 5 now.

I am still homeschooling Christopher. I had him tested by the school district and he is now labeled as "gifted". Due to that labeling, he spends 45 minutes each week with the High Ability teacher. Thanks to Wyoming law, he also participates in music and PE at our local school.

We put David into K this year. The cutoff in Wyoming is 9/15. I wanted to homeschool him but DH was adamant that David go to school. So far David is doing great! He is 1 of 7 students in K. There is only 75 students in K-6th at the school. I like how small it is and how the students watch out for each other. He received the Reading Award for the first quarter. His teacher told me that he was "squirrely" the first two weeks of school but since then he has done 180 degree turn. I had wavered on whether to send him this fall or not but I am glad I did. We needed a break from each other.

As for me, when I am not homeschooling, I am working on getting my Home Business going. I am a Barefoot Books stallholder and I love it! http://heather.barefootbooks.com

I am addicted to Facebook which is why I am not on here very often. You can find me under Heather Wendorf Johnson

Jen ~ Just because E sleeps in a stroller and drinks formula doesn't mean you are any less of an AP Mom. You are in tune to his needs. I have yet to meet the perfect AP mom.